This is the Winter 2018 course discussion blog for and by UCLA students enrolled in LGBTQ Studies 183: Queer Arts in LA.
This course includes a creative component. When this course was first offered during the Fall 2012 quarter, the students researched queer artists who have a significant connection to Los Angeles. Then created a collaborative website.

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Sunday, February 5, 2017

Sooreh Hera

For our final project, I'd like to focus on artist Sooreh Hera. She is an Iranian artist and photographer. Her work focuses on the intersectionalities of her identity - Iranian, immigrant, Muslim, queer, and woman. She recently saw her work prominently censored in a showing in the Netherlands. This shows the constant struggle that Muslim artists, and especially queer Muslim artists, face with the world at large, where Islam, the Muslim identity, and Middle Eastern identities are constantly misunderstood, repressed, and oppressed.

I want to focus on this artist because her work is important, and, especially at a time like this, politically and socially revolutionary. I also chose this artist because she represents so much of my own identities, and this is rare for me to see. It's rare to see femme, Middle Eastern, queer, and/or Muslim identities centered, given attention to, or celebrated, in intersectional conjunction or even separately. For this reason, I'm excited to learn more about her and her art, and to bring that research forward to the class.